‘This year, we dedicate March 8 to hope for peace and women’s solidarity’

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This year's March 8 International Women's Day Declaration of the Turkish Writers' Union (TYS) has been penned by Federation of Women Associations of Turkey (TKDF) Chair Canan Güllü. The declaration "Our Struggle for Democracy and Rights on March 8" reads as follows:

'Hope for peace'

"We mark this March 8 in the darkness of the war right next to us. Ukraine is also added to the geographies where women, children and civilians face bloodshed from Syria to Yemen, from Palestine to Afghanistan.

"We dedicate this year's March 8 to the hope for peace and women's solidarity and salute Ukrainian women and their resistance.

Convention, Action Plan and right to alimony

"2021 was a year when the İstanbul Convention was unlawfully terminated one night and a camp striving to sever Turkey's ties with universal legal values openly declared war on women's most fundamental rights, primarily their right to life. The termination of the İstanbul Convention should be considered together with the 4th Human Rights Action Plan and the debates on women's right to alimony that are sparked off by the government.

"As a result of the termination of the İstanbul Convention, the protective and preventive measures have been shelved despite the increasing feminicides and domestic violence; women have been abandoned to a cycle of violence with measures taken for show only such as the 4th Human Rights Action Plan. The decision to terminate the İstanbul Convention despite the whole social opposition is an open attack on women's right to life.

"The issue at hand here is the political power holders' fight to deprive women, children and LGBTIQ+s of their right to lead an equal life free from violence, which is represented by the İstanbul Convention.

"Encouraged by this, male violence is everywhere with systematic brutality that is increasing day by day. Finding strength in political power holders, men brutally kill women, harass women on the street, erase them from politics, rape them, interfere with their right to have an abortion, do not send girls to school and force them to marry, exploit women's labor and abuse children at the dormitories of religious cults. Nothing eventually happens to these men; the man is almost rewarded by the male judiciary.

'It is possible with solidarity'

"In our struggle for women's human rights that we have been waging as the Federation of Women Associations of Turkey (TKDF) for over 40 years, we did and do witness very difficult times. However, we are hopeful despite everything because the women's movement in Turkey stems from a tradition interwoven with determination; women do not give up on the struggle. Women's movement is the hope of this country with its honorable and struggling stance in the face of violence against women and all discriminatory attitudes and practices.

"In the meantime, the women's struggle and solidarity rising against male-dominated mindset all across the world harbinger that a free life without violence is possible for women. It is difficult, but possible with solidarity.

"We once again declare that we will be insistent on women's freedom in the face of the male mindset that attacks the İstanbul Convention and the Law no. 6284 [on the Protection of Family and Prevention of Violence Against Women]; we will keep on struggling on this March 8, too.

"We enthusiastically celebrate March 8 Women's Day, which symbolizes the struggle against the exploitation of women's paid-unpaid labor, poverty, harassment, rape and inequality in all areas of life, and we call on everyone to raise women's solidarity and struggle for equality, a humane life and a more democratic country. Women; to the streets on March 8 for our struggle for democracy and rights!" (AÖ/SD)